Appellate Tax Board

Where the appellant relied on a tax expert’s advice not to pay the income tax shown as due on his tax form because his employer improperly failed to withhold taxes from his wages, the appellant remains liable for the tax reported due and therefore is not entitled to an abatement of tax and related interest for the tax year at issue.

Where an appellant has claimed the status of a professional gambler and deducted his wagering losses as business expenses, the appellant has failed to establish that he was in the trade or business of gambling and, therefore, is not entitled to deduct his wagering losses from the amount of his winnings.

Where the owner of the Josiah Quincy Building has challenged the Quincy assessors’ valuation of the property for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, an abatement should be granted for FY 2010 based on a $38,700 overvaluation.

Where Lexington landowners presented unsubstantiated appraisals of their property, inadequate self-prepared analyses of the property’s value and non-persuasive comparable-assessment evidence, the appellants did not meet their burden of demonstrating that the subject property was overvalued for the fiscal years at issue.

Where Springfield landowners have requested a property tax abatement on their two contiguous parcels of real estate, the landowners are accordingly entitled to a tax abatement because the assessors overvalued the main property by attributing all the rental income of the rear property to its value.

Where a Lawrence landowner has requested a property tax abatement by presenting comparable-sales evidence and claims of fire damage to the property, the landowner failed to establish that the fair cash value of the subject property was less than its assessed value and thus the abatement request must be denied.

Where the Mattapoisett assessors valued at $966,800 the appellant’s 1.1-acre parcel of land with 100 feet of ocean frontage on Buzzard’s Bay and improved with a single-family A-frame cottage constructed on piers, the appellant has not shown any overvaluation.